Not Labor Day

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Today, for me, is Not Labor Day. I am lazy. I am taking the day off. It wasn't planned, but I guess it was needed.

Here is where I am today. Stretched out on the chaise on the deck. The Sunday paper is spread out around me.

View, if I look straight ahead.

View if I look up.

View if I look down.

That's it. I'm not moving.

I can't remember the last time I was so relaxed. Like I wrote yesterday, it has been a great summer, but it has been a busy one. Wish I had a dollar for every meal I have served this summer. We have eaten well, if I may say so myself. And we've fed a lot of people around that table in the top photo. Good times. Really. But I am savoring the quiet.

The morning started with some ambitions. I tried to do some drawings. I have neglected my drawing blog badly and want to get it under control. My drawing efforts were half-hearted and bleh. I'll try again tomorrow.

I wandered out to the studio and looked around. I ended up fixing a pair of pants that have been in danger of falling right off of me. It's not that I have lost any weight—they are the kind that come out of the dryer fitting perfectly and within two hours they have grown a size. The weight of my phone in my pocket has me in fear that they will fall right off. Working a length of elastic into the waistband is the most productive thing I have done today. Then I lost momentum. Succumbed to inertia.

I finished reading Cannery Row and lay back, gazing up through the bamboo and pondered the grace and poetry of Steinbeck. I read some of the paper, lost interest and simply stared into space, enjoying the clear blue sky and noticing a distinct chill in the shadows. September has arrived. Life is good. I needed today.